High-school life gets even more unbearable for Nadine when her best friend, Krista, starts dating her older brother.
Starring: Hailee Steinfeld, Haley Lu Richardson, Blake Jenner, Kyra Sedgwick, and Woody Harrelson
Directed and written by: Kelly Fremon Craig
For some it seems like high-school is so easy. The star quarterback gets all the girls’ attention, and boys’ eyes are always on the prom queen. For some it’s the complete opposite. They’re almost invisible with nothing to do but their schoolwork. In the end, as easy or hard high-school is, every teen faces their own struggles at some point, and that’s what “The Edge of Seventeen” reminds audiences.
Nadine (Hailee Steinfeld) is the main struggling teen in this story. Actually, her difficulties might have started at an earlier age, as the audience gets a funny scene of her staging a revolt about getting out the car. Not long after another funny moment or two, things get serious as she loses her father. As she gets older, the only person she feels is truly on her side is her best friend Krista (Haley Lu Richardson). Like it happens to many best friends, a boy comes in-between them. In this case, that boy is Nadine’s brother, Darian (Blake Jenner).
They do a good of making the audience really feel for what she’s going through. From the audience’s point of view, they can also see how she’s not doing her self any favors, including sending a boy she likes an embarrassing text. However, it’s not all bad for her whether she realizes it, or not. While she has her eyes on a boy way beyond her reach, Mr. Right, is sitting right next to her. There are several humorous moments between the two reminding some how awkward young love can be.
Nadine also has some hilarious moments with her teacher, Mr. Bruner (Woody Harrelson). He kind of becomes her safety blanket, as she goes to him for advice, and sometimes just to get away from her classmates. What makes this student-teacher relationship different is how Mr. Bruner treats her in such a calm manner. He almost acts like he doesn’t care, but everyone knows he does. She feels free to speak her mind, and he says as little as possible.
As previously hinted, while the story is about Nadine, the beauty of the story is fitting in how each of the teens featured have struggles of their own. In Nadine’s eyes her brother is the perfect one, but he struggles with having to be the man of the house after their father’s death. Krista doesn’t want to her hurt Nadine, but can’t help her new found feelings for Darian, and the new attention she gets. Even their mother proves that adults have struggles too!
This coming of age story is really a rollercoaster of emotions. They do an excellent job of getting the audience to feel for Nadine at first, and later for some of the other characters as well. There are several serious moments that probably hit home with many people. They manage to mix in the right amount of humor with Nadine’s interactions with Mr. Bruner, and her true love interest Erwin. The cast from top to bottom nails their roles. With that, I give “The Edge of Seventeen” 3 stars!
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